Letter to the Editor 2, 11-14

Dear Editor, Regarding the Nov. 12 column ‘Prop. 8 a step back for civil rights,’ I have no… Dear Editor, Regarding the Nov. 12 column ‘Prop. 8 a step back for civil rights,’ I have no doubt that people like Giles Howard are sincere in their fierce opposition to the passage of Prop. 8, and I applaud him and others like him for his opposition. However, I think he’s also fundamentally misinformed, both in pronouncing, like so many other overeager white liberals excited about Barack Obama, the death-knell of racism in the United States (we, according to him, ‘defeated the racism of our fathers,’ and the election represented, at least for blacks, ‘the pinnacle of the civil rights struggle’) and in his puzzling insistence that the black community bears the brunt of the responsibility for the passage of Prop. 8.’ In assigning blame, he says not one word about the real culprits for the initiative’s passage, namely fundamentalist Christians, wealthy conservatives and Republicans, all of whom were integral in actually spearheading the ‘Yes on Prop. 8’ campaign and voted ‘yes’ at much higher rates than blacks. Nor does he mention the fact that many young first-time voters, energized by Obama, came out to vote against Prop. 8 by large margins, suggesting a generational rather than a racial gap. It is the religious right, not the black community, that he should be setting his sights on. Matt Kosko School of Arts and Sciences